Robert Muldoon: The Grim Face of Power - Part Two

They won’t put up a statue to me. No, no, no. Nobody’s got that sense of humour.

– Sir Robert Muldoon

There was a lady walking down the pavement and, as we passed, she stopped. She said, 'I know you, don’t I?' I said 'My name’s Muldoon'. 'You’re not related to that bastard in parliament are you?' And, on that salutary note, Mr. Speaker, I say goodbye.

– Sir Robert Muldoon, in his valedictory speech

In the end, the show was repetitious, punched below the belt, made incredible leaps of logic and had a certain nasty entertainment value. Rob would have been proud.

– Listener reviewer Diana Wichtel, 14 May 1994

...I sort of sat there and watched, and tears welled in his eyes and eventually he sort of put his paper together, in that terribly lonely way that he had. He walked off and went into a room.  I remember his policeman Jock Munro was there  . . .  but there was no one to whom he turned, no comfort, no solicitude from anyone. There was the man who rarely spoke to his staff, who was in a television studio on the most traumatic evening of his television life, probably, and into the little room off the side he went, crying.

– David Lange on Rob Muldoon's reaction after their leaders debate, in the run-up to the 1984 election, early in clip three

I think deep down he knew. One only had to be given the sort of polling that I was giving him on a daily basis.

– Former National Party President Sue Wood on Rob Muldoon holding out against defeat in the 1984 election, early in clip three

I thought that was a very sad occasion. There was not one phone call. When you’re finished with…one becomes very disposable. And I saw the savagery of politics.

– Family friend Fred Dobbs on Muldoon’s lonely night after his famous 1984 election loss, in clip three

One I can remember collapsed in the house with the pressure,. Another one went away for a weekend to have a quiet time. So the pressure was absolutely intense, but it would be on a one to one basis.

– Former National MP Derek Quigley on rebel MPs folding under pressure from Rob Muldoon not to challenge their leadership, in the first clip